Almost4x4

Hello everyone dear Almosters ,

Today Morning we had a fun event / Drive organized by @booy
Starting with reaching early around 7:40 to the meeting point and seeing a jeep coming after one another ! They were ahead of us Toyotas in numbers this time , nothing we could do .
Spent the time chitchatting with fellow drivers aaaaand fixing the pole was the only thing to do NO DEFLATING as stated clearly in the trip details!

Had the initial briefing attendance and off we went at 8:30 with full tire pressure taking second lead behind the legendary @abusalim
Crossed some straight easy dunes (cause he was so kind) and reaching to the class to get our most important lesson given to us by @abusalim with couple of casualties at the back which it got sorted out by our great support @rashid @abuodai @armin @georgio @sing @scorpio.

All cars reached to a flat surface , toys were planted stuck in so many different scenarios made by @Abusalim , directions and advices where given in two ways the lonely way (self-Recovery) and the pulling by another car way by telling us where to dig , how to assess , where to look, where to hook viking rope which side back or front , right or left .
Got an idea on how to fix tires in case of puncture or pop outs even in case of valve ripping .

Class dismissed , aaaand DEFLATE was called by the founder woooo , feels good in fact the we didn’t know what was coming , “ OK guys find your self a buddy and go get your self stuck and self recover once and get pulled once and do the same with your buddy” Abu salim Said,
Right next to me I was lucky to have @Kevin and we became buddies instantly and went for the try , we had to try multiple times to have our self stuck (crested in particular) because when you need it , it won’t happen .
Firstly my buddy @Kevin started with getting his 2 Doors wrangler crested and we tried the pulling method and was easy and smooth taking into consideration all tips and tricks that abu salim has taught us.
Talking about the second and the disaster , had to put Land cruiser desert ship to the try now, looked for a tough one and found it , got crested and got down, assessed the issue, agreed me and Kevin to Pull it out using the viking rope :D guess what guys , I get a message over the radio from @rashidjass, saying GO WITH SELF RECOVERY . OMG I wished he wasn’t talking to me , I wished he wasn’t in the car in front of me . (of course he said that with a radio in a hand and his camera in the other :P he saw the desperate look on my face.
Got the god damn shovel (I wish someone could invent an electric shovel like you just put it to the sand and it starts throw sand away :P ) and my best buddy got his too , and from both sides of the belly started digging and freeing the car , took us like 15 to 20 minutes till we saw the light (not a rabbit tunnel light tho) and I gave it a try , Thanks to Kevin the desert ship go back on wheels and all gone well.
To try things differently me and kevin agreed that I’ll try to have my car crested parallel with the crest under me , and it happened with a little bit of an angle on it , I looked around first and thankfully Rashid wasn’t in the radius , Kevin got his rope to pull , guess what , Abu salim over the radio: Abu jawad Abu jawad first get the shovel and dig behind the car and underneath it at the rear side.
I was like now you abu salim :P but definitely it was a valuable tip by him to avoid miss pulling my car because if happens my ship would roll over, so started digging and within 7 minutes I freed behind the rear tire and under the spare , Kevin in his car , rope in place ; in the last second I thought my car might be able to self recover, so with the setup in place I calmly reversed with the right steering angle , aaaand the Ship back on its wheels.

We gathered again for the ending treat that is a good action drive leading it is Booy, full of side crests from low to medium height dunes , straight crests and fast drives , also got the second lead spot for me and it was really fun as the track in front of me Is fresh only driven on by the leader, feels different and very fun. (I always drive at the end btw for those of you who don’t know). Got some issues at the back of the convoy and assessed well by the marshals and support.
Drive ended I can’t remember what time , Booy got our us back to main road , inflated tires , waived my hand, fist bumped friends and back home for a long sleep .

I know it is a long trip report but believe me it was a long and nice day with full of action.

Great thanks for organizer and supports and to my buddy Kevin.

Stay safe and be responsible.

"Rescue the Marshall" ... well, let's start from the beginning, after "Egg in basket" that was a proper name that represents perfectly the spirit of the task RTM is like if you go to a restaurant, order a double cheese burger with bacon (beef of course ) and fried egg and they give you a tomato and avocado salad ...

The drive started in a very interesting fashion, desert tracks on full tyres, I had never thought about it that much but no doubt a fantastic skill to train, we all camp with friends and families and sometimes very useful to inflate at the camp location and leave the desert on full tyres not having to take extra time to inflate later on when you just want to reach home ASAP (mainly those of us with kids). A few casualties towards the back of the convoy on this exercise.

Reached the briefing point and I have to be honest, the best 45min that anyone could have, it should be compulsory for anyone thinking of putting a wheel on the sand, some of the things/situations I knew, a few I had been told before, others I learnt "the hard way" and others I had never considered ... absolutely priceless, I would probably say that it even compensated for what came afterwards ...

"Get in pairs with a buddy" was the shout and there we went, Marco and I, as the 2 Southern Europeans approaching their forties ( ) that we are understood it as, one gets stuck the other one helps with the recovery, he crested first I gave him a pull, I crested second he gave me a pull, beautiful morning under the sand ... until we were spotted by the Marshalls and explained that it seemed we got it wrong, very wrong.

Self recovery, find a nice crest, get your car on his/her belly, found a decent crest, 20m apart from each other and did as instructed. I must admit that I got stuck but little, thinking of using the shovel only as necessary, got spotted by one of the Marshalls (won't give names ... ) and I was asked to do exactly the opposite of what Al Shamsi had said, remember the once you get stuck, calm down, don't accelerate, come out of the car, walk around, check the options, ... and then only act, well, not that, go back into the car and floor it to make sure you will have to shovel a few tones of sand for your car to become free.

Interesting things I found out about shoveling:

much more enjoyable in the side of the car that is in the shade.
Hat, gloves and plenty of water a must, luckily I had them all.
It does help to increase your appetite, when I got home I had lunch as if I had not eaten in days
The shower once you reach home feels like a 5star Spa.

What I learnt about self recovery:

Better to go to the desert with friends, it will save you a lot of hassle.
If you are alone try not to get stuck, prevention is the best medicine.
If you are unlucky and it happens when alone, don't worry, think before you act, take your time (it will not be a quick fix) but as long as you are prepared, know what to do and have with your the right tools you will be OK.

After the digging Booy reminded us that desert driving is fun, good enjoyable route, very long convoy with some 2nd tries but overall a perfect way to finish the morning.

Looking forward to the next drive, see you on the sand (please not in the sand again )

I left home early, without a clear idea of what to expect for the "rescue the marshal" drive.

We left the meeting point with full tires: a few minutes later I discovered that the drill was already started. "let's see if somebody gets stuck driving on full tires". Cool! I immediately started thinking "Marco, do not ever slow down or stop on flat or climb: only descents". 30 seconds later 2 casualties in front of me, but I stopped on the descent :-)

Later on we had a very long, but interesting briefing on recovery techniques and tools: hopefully somebody recorded it and will post on youtube. @alshamsi_m clarified that in the desert bad things can happen to everybody, even the best, so we have to be prepared to manage the worst, whether we drive with friends or alone.

A knife caught my attention. I know that a roll-over can happen, but never considered how to get out of a rolled car: maybe you cannot unfasten the seat belt and have to cut it, maybe doors cannot be opened and you have to break the glass, which is tempered and designed to not break :-)

After reviewing other tools and pulling techniques, we deflated and started the drive. I paired with @David (few lines above he described me as "approaching forties", but actually I am leaving them :-) ). We left the area trying to get stuck on a straight cresting, which - surprisingly - was not that easy anymore to do it on purpose. After a while we managed it and practiced pulling each other, until....
...until an evil marshal (can't mention the nickname, but friends know him as Desmond and organized many 10+ drives in 2020 after the lockdown) told us on the radio that we had to practice self-recovery, which means SHOVELING.

Seriously?!?!? at 11am on a hot day? Ok, every day has its pain and this is the hobby that I chose for my spare time. Getting stuck has been easier just after the previous attempt. Got out of the car, drank a lot of water, put my hat on, got the shovel and started digging on both sides. My car was completely bellied and after 20 minutes only a smaller area was still on the sand: I decided to give it a try, using 4L just to have more chances and I was out.

Enough for side cresting, I wanted to learn something new so I started doing some side cresting and moving around, driving ON crests and slowing down, took some risks, but instinct was always saving me avoiding getting stuck.

I started following @Booy hoping for some difficult area to get crested, asked for his help: he dragged me in a difficult and steep spot: before leaving the dune, while I just started my approach, he hit the brakes and reversed a bit!  PFUI!  He's a newbie in this, I just learned this lesson from the Evil PRO marshal (can't mention the nickname, but it seems that he founded the oldest 4x4 club of the UAE), so I did not get stuck. Reversed and repeated the approach, with no issues.

Last attempt from @Booy : he suggested another difficult spot. Double dunes, just after crossing the first one, there was another one where I basically stopped over with my front bumper, in the middle of two dunes. No space in front, on the left or on the right. Reverse and drive a couple of times, then I moved out on the side and was out.

Eventually, we had a 50 minutes drive reaching the exit point: some casualties, probably many were quite tired, after digging under the sun.

Very fun drive, learnt a lot of new stuff.

Thanks to the organizers and the support team.
Marco

Hi all,

Rescue the Marshall was a great morning exercise! Unfortunately, problems with the car again (driving it all week and putting some km's on there, didn't prepare it for the sand apparently), anyway @Rashid lent me his car and I could continue the day.

After the briefing, we paired up trying to get our cars stuck, which indeed proved more difficult then when you don't want to get stuck. Anyhow sometime later, my team mate @Mehdi , got his pajero hanging on the crest.
We decided to start digging, as it was still early morning and we were fresh, a good half an hour later it was loose and we continued to look for the rest.....

Finally, we got to exercise a bit with the rope as well and all going @alshamsi_m was heard shouting over the radio to assemble. No clue where the rest was, we just drove in a general direction and suddenly a swarm of cars showed up.

The next treat was the great drive @Booy gave us to stretch the muscles a bit.
Lovely!! But man, driving another guy's car really made me nervous and what a huge difference driving with different suspension, later year model, so a very good learning experience!

During the drive, the madam next to me started to get on her nerves and decided to make an appointment, so she could have her own car (most likely she is tired of mine breaking down all the time). So most likely, we will have a new member very shortly


Thank you all for the nice morning and a special thanks to @Scorpio, who dropped us at home.

See you soon (hopefully),

Tom

Hello everyone,

It was another great morning in the sand, with lots of hidden surprises for the participants.

Some people forgot the words of advice in the trip description, or maybe thought we were joking:
"You will experience different recovery techniques by getting stuck, digging, pushing, pulling and the use of the kinetic rope.
This event requires physical effort, so bring enough to eat and drink to retain your strength and to keep hydrated."

After much digging, pushing, pulling and use of the kinetic ropes, we set off for a quick spin, with a HUGE convoy, where we pushed the level a little more, to show you what is to come....

Everyone did well, and I am looking forward to seeing you in the sand again soon.

Till then be safe..

Regards,

Booy

Booy wrote: Sun Oct 11, 2020 1:36 pm Hello everyone,

Some people forgot the words of advice in the trip description, or maybe thought we were joking:
"You will experience different recovery techniques by getting stuck, digging, pushing, pulling and the use of the kinetic rope.
Booy

Hello Everyone

Rescue the marshal is an introduction for what to expect in the upcoming level. We do have the rescue training for our intermediate members but we start early with newbies after 10 drives to make more sense to them.

You might wonder why we didn't allow the deflating ???? I told you on the radio that I was in one of those good days so the trick is to ask you to move after the main briefing to end up with most of the newbies stuck in the same area

What I noticed that all the members took this training seriously and dug like their life was counting on it .... Thanks for all of you


I promise you that you are going to have more fun with us , just keep the sand flying

Till next time stay safe and see you NEXT WEEKEND

Hello all,

With a little delay I join all those who have written before me.

I will thank those who made this working outing under the sun in general, all the members of the club (too many to list them one by one).
however we would like to thank the organizer of this "rescue the Marshall" @Booy ,
and @alshamsi_m for his masterful course in the theory of going out of trouble...

then from theory to practice only one step to take ... at the top of the conductor.
as I pointed out to my partner @Tomvanhouten , when you try to get stuck ... less easy than when you don't want to!
thanks to him for this mutual assistance, we will remember it for a long time.

after playing with our shovels, ropes, etc, and drinking a lot of water ... radio call for a general gathering!
end of recess, short course on the crest of the dunes where my attention was maximum, avoiding the traps...only two second tries, and one rescue being stucked.

another good day of learning to drive in the desert in complete safety!
glad to have been there, with all of you.

I look forward to seeing you soon.